Description

This interdisciplinary work examines the representation of death in traditional and 'new' media, explores the meaning of assassination and suicide in a post 9/11 context, and grapples with the use of legal and medical tools that affect the quest for a 'good death'. The contributors treat their interrelated topics from the perspective of their expertise in medicine, law, psychology, anthropology, sociology, political science, religion, philosophy, literature, media, and visual culture.

Contents

Foreword by Lesley A. Sharp, Ph.D; Introduction - Christina Staudt; Part I - The New Mediated Death; Witnessing Death on the Modern Stage - Angela Belli; Capturing Death on Video: Sophie Calle's Public Installation at the 2007 Venice Biennale - Marcelline Block; Ethic of Death and Photography: Korean Funerary Photo-Portraiture - Jeehey Kim; Death in Cyberspace: Bodies, Boundaries, and Postmodern Memorializing - Sayantani DasGupta and Marcia Hurst; Death in Cyberspace: Psychoanalysis and the Internet - Mikita Brottman; From Black Crepe to Blue Ink: Mourning Tattoos and the Practice of Embodied Bereavement - Lauren F. Winner; Part II - Violent, Politicized Death; Assassination Discourse and Political Power: The Death of Alexander Litvinenko - Ronald F. White; From Mass Graves to Public Cemeteries: The Recent and Historic Treatment of Unidentified Bodies in Colombia's Conflict - Ana Maria Gomez Lopez; Death in the Psychology of Genocide and Terrorism - J. Harold Ellens; The Mind That Writes: Observing the Concept of "Revelation" in Religious Literature in Light of the Fear of Death - David Greene; Terrorism, Death, and Sexuality - Jerry S. Piven; Mass Violence and Adaptation: A New Frame of Reference - Michael K. Bartalos; Part III - The Good Death Revisited; The Changing Cultures of Dying in Medical Institutions - John Fox; How We Let People Die - Miriam Piven Cotler; Facilitating 'Grief Work': The Behaviorist Turn in Hospice Care - John Eric Baugher; The Influence of Buddhism on Western Death Attitudes - Alan Pope; Language Matters! Support for Using Emotionally Neutral Language when Discussing End-of-Life Choices - Judith Schwartz.